Carol Peyton Minshew, 56, a resident of Lake City, Florida, passed away on Friday, August 30, 2013 at the Suwannee Valley Care Center (Haven Hospice). She was born in Memphis, Tennessee to Betty Ann {Smith} and the late Charlie V. Peyton, and had lived here in Columbia County for the past 8 years. Carol was a graduate of Christian Brothers College (now University) in Memphis with a bachelors degree in electrical engineering. She was an outside plant engineer with South Central Bell in Memphis from 1979 -1990. During that time, she helped her husband plant Lake Forest Baptist Church in Walls, Mississippi. Appointed with her husband as a career missionary by the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board in 1990, she went to Portugal and learned that language. She served alongside her husband in Angola, Kenya and Namibia. While in Kenya, she served as a lecturer at the Kenya Baptist Theological College. The Minshews returned to the United States in 2004 when political issues prevented their continued service in Namibia. During their years here, she was an incredible support to the ministry of the Wellborn Baptist Church where her husband, Dr. Donald Minshew, is senior pastor. She found some of her greatest joy in life as a mother, supporting Dennis who has excelled as a swimmer with Gator Swim Club in Gainesville and who is in his freshman year swimming for Columbia High School.

She is preceded in death by her sister, Karen.

She is survived by her husband, Dr. Donald Minshew; son, Dennis Minshew of Lake City, FL; brother, Scott (Donna) Peyton of Madison, MS; and nephew, John Peyton of Madison, MS.

Funeral services will be conducted at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, September 4, 2013 at Wellborn Baptist Church with Rev. Phillip Herrington, pastor of First Baptist Church, Live Oak and Rev. Robert Bass, pastor of First Baptist Church, Lake City officiating. Visitation with the family will be held Tuesday evening, September 3, 2013 from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. at the funeral home. The family will have final funeral services in the chapel of Lea and Simmons Funeral Home in Brownsville, Tennessee, at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, September 7, 2013. Interment will follow in Trinity Cemetery, Nutbush Tennessee. Local arrangements are by GATEWAY-FOREST LAWN FUNERAL HOME, 3596 S. U.S. Hwy 441, Lake City, Florida, 32025. (386) 752-1954. Please leave words of comfort for the family online at www.gateway-forestlawn.com